Testing the hypothesis of fire use for ecosystem management by neanderthal and upper palaeolithic modern human populations.

Anne-Laure Daniau,Francesco D'Errico,Maria Fernanda Sánchez Goñi,James Holland Jones

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009157

Abstract

BackgroundIt has been proposed that a greater control and more extensive use of fire was one of the behavioral innovations that emerged in Africa among early Modern Humans, favouring their spread throughout the world and determining their eventual evolutionary success. We would expect, if extensive fire use for ecosystem management were a component of the modern human technical and cognitive package, as suggested for Australia, to find major disturbances in the natural biomass burning variability associated with the colonisation of Europe by Modern Humans.Methodology/Principal FindingsAnalyses of microcharcoal preserved in two deep-sea cores located off Iberia and France were used to reconstruct changes in biomass burning between 70 and 10 kyr cal BP. Results indicate that fire regime follows the Dansgaard-Oeschger climatic variability and its impacts on fuel load. No major disturbance in natural fire regime variability is observed at the time of the arrival of Modern Humans in Europe or during the remainder of the Upper Palaeolithic (40–10 kyr cal BP).Conclusions/SignificanceResults indicate that either Neanderthals and Modern humans did not influence fire regime or that, if they did, their respective influence was comparable at a regional scale, and not as pronounced as that observed in the biomass burning history of Southeast Asia.

Highlights

The earliest convincing evidence for human control of fire dates back to 500 kyr BP in Europe [1] and 790 kyr BP in the Near East [2]
As total plant biomass in forest and heathland communities is generally higher than open ground formations [69], these changes indicate the association of increased biomass accumulation with higher fire regime
Several lines of evidence have recently challenged the anthropogenic hypothesis: 1) major changes in fire regimes have been documented by charcoal records for periods prior to the arrival of modern humans [32,34]; 2) changes in the ENSO variability and its impact on rainfall may explain the increase in natural fire [33]; 3) a broadlysynchronous transition to more xerophytic vegetation is observed in New Caledonia, a region not colonised until 3,000 years ago [35]; 4) climate-model experiments show that feedbacks associated with fires, even catastrophic fires, would have been insufficient to dry out the region [36]

Summary

Introduction

The earliest convincing evidence for human control of fire dates back to 500 kyr BP in Europe [1] and 790 kyr BP in the Near East [2]. Fire-use for ecosystem management is not restricted to agrarian and herding societies: regular burning of landscape is reported for Native Americans and aboriginal people of Australia (‘‘fire-stick farming’’) to create favourable habitats for the foraging and the hunting of small and big game [10,11]. Australian Aborigines skilfully use fire in different environments during the annual round of hunting and gathering They have a well-developed knowledge of how to produce ignition and control fire-spread extent by burning the vegetation at the beginning and the end of the dry season when rain and storms are likely to extinguish fires [14,15]. If extensive fire use for ecosystem management were a component of the modern human technical and cognitive package, as suggested for Australia, to find major disturbances in the natural biomass burning variability associated with the colonisation of Europe by Modern Humans

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion